Animal feeding devices, in particular bird feeders, are quite common worldwide, as many people care about the welfare of animals. It is enjoyable to watch the animals feed at these devices. Animal feeding devices are especially useful in areas where the climate makes access to food and water for animals difficult.
For example, in colder areas of North America, there is snow cover on the ground for several months. For birds living in these areas, the deep snow inhibits them in obtaining seeds, other foodstuffs, stones and/or water, necessary for maintenance. To assist birds in this winter survival, many people have bird feeding devices, that can be placed at locations above the snow cover, allowing birds access to these items. One bird feeder is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,838,205 (Larson).
Bird and animal enthusiasts are also interested in having as many feeding devices as possible, and therefore, it is always desired to produce high quality feeders at the lowest possible cost. One way to reduce costs is to reduce shipping costs. These costs can typically be reduced if more product can be shipped in the same amount of space and by using less packaging material. While fully disassembled birdfeeders occupy the least amount of volume, many people do not wish to purchase fully disassembled structures. Alternately, many fully assembled structures are also commercially available, but these structures occupy large amounts of volume in their packaging, with this increased volume leading to increased shipping costs, adding to the overall product cost.